Glencairn Museum Sets Time Machine to Middle Ages

Glencairn Museum’s Medieval Festival will recreate the art, music, crafts and swordsmanship of the Middle Ages, giving attendees the chance to experience for themselves the long-ago sights and sounds of knights and ladies.

Listen to the strains of period instruments like the hurdy-gurdy, the bray harp and the rebec (ancestor to the violin). See the ancient art of stained-glass painting. Watch the mechanics of a Gutenberg-style moveable-type printing press in action. Give a spin to a spinning wheel in a hands-on demo. And be sure to duck when the Medieval Martial Arts Guild stages its battles with halberds (axe blade topped with a spike) and poleaxes (wooden haft with a steel head).

You’ll also take a Canterbury Tales–type pilgrimage with period re-enactors playing roles typically seen on these treks: beggars, cobblers and even robbers.

The festival does not eclipse the treasures routinely on display at Glencairn Museum. A cell phone audio tour is available, as is the exhibit “Windows into Heaven: The Icons of Susan Kelly vonMedicus”

The truly adventurous can don their shining armor or tunics and vie for a special prize.

WHERE: Glencairn Museum
1001 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn, Pa. 19009

WHEN: February 3, 2013 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. (snow date: February 10, 2013)
Admission: Adults, $8; students (with ID) and seniors, $6; children under four and museum members, free. A $20 family rate is available to parties of four from the same household (half price regular admission for each additional guest.